Howdy y’all!  It’s been forever since we’ve updated so it’s time to play catch-up.  This post will deal with everything we’ve done from 7/09 (the day after the last post) up to 7/14 – the 2nd Sunday of the trip.  Next post we’ll fill you in up to 7/21, the 3rd Sunday, and after that we’ll try to stay more on track…ish 😉

We camped at a “free campsite” that night, which was actually just a dirt road on BLM territory.  We saw tons of jackrabbits and tucked the car away behind a cute juniper tree for the evening.  We heated some soup and camped in the car, heading out in the morning for Virginia City, NV.  That city was a HOOT!  It’s like they never got past the wild west era and are just loving that fact.  We stopped by the Silver Queen hotel where we visited the silver lady, a portrait whose dress is adorned with over a thousand silver dollars, at Brian’s mom’s suggestion (thanks, Sheila!)  We also poked our heads in the Bucket of Blood Saloon, the Comstock Firemen’s museum, and then stopped by a little store for some ice cream on our way out.  We’re ice cream fiends.  Then on to Reno! 

Our first stop in Reno was a Planet Fitness.  No working out for us, just free showers!  Then on to a laundromat to do our first load of laundry for the trip.  But that’s boring, so on to the fun stuff! 
The majority of our short time in Reno was spent visiting Brian’s great aunt Patti.  She was the coolest!  She and Brian hadn’t seen each other for years and years so there was lots of catching up to do.  We exchanged travel stories in her lovely back yard and have put Florence, Italy on our to-visit list at her recommendation.  We went out to dinner together at a great little place called PJ & Co.  The portion sizes were HUGE and we’ve been eating less than we’re used to, so we had some yummy leftovers for lunch the next day!  Our time in Reno was short but sweet; we only spent the night and had breakfast together the next morning, but then we were back on the road again.  Thanks, Patti, for your hospitality and your stories and the lavender from your garden!  We dried it and made a little mesh bag of lovely smells ☺️ I sniff it all the time! 

After departing from Reno, we headed north into Oregon.  Our next stop was Crater Lake but we didn’t make it into the actual park until the next day.  Our drive was slowed down somewhat by a huge herd of cows crossing the road…and crossing back…and walking in the road…etc etc.  Crazy cows!  We stopped for the evening at a cute little free campsite called Annie Creek Sno-Park, which was gorgeous…except for the onslaught of mosquitos the second we left the vehicle!  We walked down to the creek to explore for a minute but were forced back into the car for the whole evening within about 10 minutes.  They were RELENTLESS.  They didn’t care about the bug spray I was covered in; they wanted blood and they wanted it BAD! To quote my man Hozier: “I have never known hunger like these insects that feast on me.”  We confined ourselves to the car, eating raw sandwiches and doing puzzles until it was time to fall asleep.  Needless to say, we were out of there in the morning tout de suite!

Luckily we were nice and close to Crater Lake National Park, our main destination for the day.  What a place!  We spent the whole day exploring this freakishly blue isolated lake, the result of the eruption and subsequent collapse of Mount Mazama thousands of years ago.  It was incredible.  The park is set up with a main road that circumnavigates the lake and plenty of points of interest and little hikes along the way.  It was 35-ish miles around the road. We spent a good 6 or 7 hours at the park stopping and exploring and hiking and taking lots of beautiful pictures.  There were mosquitos here too, of course…in abundance.  We left in itchy awe of this weird, natural, accidental occurrence.  If anyone has the chance, pay it a visit.  We’ve never seen anything like it.

We camped that night at another sketchy little spot on BLM land called 8 Dollar Road.  It was a nice area for an evening with a small creek nearby.  It was a short stay – just enough time to eat some ramen, rearrange stuff, and crash for the night.  In the morning we ate some quick cereal and headed off to the Oregon coast!

I had made it a personal goal to drive up as much as the Oregon coast as possible, knowing it’d be a gorgeous drive.  Brian agreed and we ended up dipping back down into California a little, which was a longer route than anticipated, so that we could come into Oregon right at the bottom of the coast.  Our first day of driving went by too quickly.  There were incredible views everywhere.  We drove through countless little seaside towns without a chain restaurant in sight.  If we had endless funds and time I would have loved to have stayed at all of them, sampling chowder and soaking up the scenery.  But alas, we have too much to see and do and too little money!  We visited a couple of beaches, got some sand between the toes, explored rock pools and caves, and then stopped by a small market to buy some fresh things for a picnic lunch.  One point of interest was Face Rock in Bandon, OR.  It’s a beach viewpoint with a giant rock tower emerging from the ocean that looks like a face gazing up at the sky.  Old legends and folklore about this rock abound – give it a Google search if you’re interested.  Other named sea stacks on the same beach include Cat and Kittens rocks. Cute! =^.^=  That night we camped at Dry Lake Horse Camp, another BLM area a little way back from the coast.  The official trailhead had a “no shooting” sign with bullet holes in it and a camping family who stared at us for a little too long when we drove up…so we ended up ditching that spot and tucking away along a road a mile or so out.  This area ended up being much more picturesque with lots of old growth forest and foxgloves taller than people.  I had to alert Brian to a little frog hopping down the lane so he didn’t squish it!  Very cute area, but only for one night. 

We awoke the morning of the 13th bright(ish) and early(ish) and got right back on the 101 for more coastal beauty.  Our first spot was Sea Lion Caves, the largest mainland sea cave in the US.  We learned about its history and admired all the grumbling, loafing sea lions inside the cave and out.  There were lots of sea birds to see, too, who had no fear of humans and came right up to the edge of the viewing deck!  I had a little bit of a panicky moment going floors and floors down in the elevator. I’m not one for confined spaces (especially underground!) but it was well worth it.  And technically there were ways out…they were just sheer rocky cliff edges.  Oh well!  We survived. But I digress…

Our next stop after more beautiful coast driving was the Tillamook Creamery.  Anyone who knows anything about Brian and me will know that we LoOoOoOoOve our ice cream and cheeses!  So this was a must-see stop on our tour of the Oregon coast.  The factory tour was a kind of sickeningly cutesy considering the harsh realities of dairy farming, but it seemed like the Tillamook folks do their business in as respectable a way as is possible for the industry – lots of small, family-owned farms who treat their mama cows nicely and make sure they have good feed and room to roam.  They even had a display of some rotating bristly scratchers that the cows can use for massages!  How cute.  We sampled some delicious ice cream and cheeses, deciding in the end that we could juuust about stretch our food budget enough for a couple of scoops.  Brian had Stumptown Cold Brew coffee flavor, I had Blood Orange Cream and Pendleton Whiskey Maple.  Yum yum! 😋

We left the factory in the evening and decided not to go all the way to Portland until morning, so we stopped at a rest area in between the two stops.  It had flushing toilets and drinkable water; obviously more luxurious than a lot of other places we’ve stayed!  The morning of Sunday the 14th was our first day in Portland…stay tuned for our next update to hear all about that (spoiler alert – there are some seriously cute pups!) Tata for now!

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